A Very Nearly Tea

A post here? Really? After all this time?

Sort of. Mostly I'm just stopping by to let y'all know I do have a blog, though it isn't the happiest place right now. You can follow me over there and maybe take part in my writing project: Words Matter.

Two weeks?! Has it really been two weeks since I last visited this poor little blog? Parenting, I believe has been lost somewhere in the boxes stacked in the garage. Until today, my front room looked more like the back of a moving van than a house, but we've been working through and making progress.

I would have done some before and after pictures, but do you know where I so carefully placed the camera so I could find it when I wanted it? Thought not. Unfortunately, neither does anyone else.

So you are just going to have to imagine the lovely picture I wanted to place right about here to create visual interest in this post. It is a darling picture, one I hope to hold in my mind for the rest of my days. That's why I'm going to sketch it out here.

It is of my adorable little Bug. She has the brightest, most penetrating eyes, and a wild mop of curls.

Anyway, picture her from behind as she kneels before the front loading washing machine. She's never seen one before, and has been frustrated in the past in her efforts to quickly open the washing machine to see what is going on in there.

But now she knows, and it is a wonderful sight. All the sloshing water and the clothes tossing this way and that.

It's a magazine cover type of shot, capturing the wonder of childhood in the simplest of daily activities.

But I can't find my camera.

And I'm tired of laundry. Do you have any idea how much that stuff piles up during a week without water?

Little Bug isn't tired of laundry, however. At the end of the cycle she runs up to the kitchen, flushed with excitement.

Mommy, you missed the beautiful song!

She's talking about the notification sounds the washer makes when it is finished. It is a pretty little sound, one I might have eventually listened to more as a warning of more folding drudgery to come if it weren't for that excited little face it is now paired with.

Mommy, you missed the beautiful song!

Yes, indeed I did. I was too busy looking at the pile of clothes to be folded to find beauty all around it.

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been! Things have been crazy busy, but we are finally signing paperwork on the sale of our house tomorrow! In the meantime, I have started a new blog:


I have much to share involving the nonprogress going on in regards to the move, but first I have to meet the plumber. The guy who will give us water!

Nestle is in all sorts of trouble in the PR area. I guess. It hasn't stopped them from being one of the largest food distributors in the world, which is maybe why the twibbons haven't influenced them yet. In case you haven't heard, they're accused of endangering the lives of third world children through misleading advertising and marketing that goes against World Health Organization standards. Not to mention slave labor.

Here, they are something like Coca Cola. Ubiquitous and seemingly innocuous. But due to a Christmas care package my parents put together for my husband, I recently fell victim to their seedy advertising. Just look at this candy bar.

What's with the 'o'? Normally, I don't look at candy bar wrappers all that closely. Examining them brings me to the nutritional information and that is the last thing I'm concerned about when unwrapping chocolate. But just in case the fancy girl buster logo wasn't clear enough, they spelled out the weirdest marketing ploy I have ever seen stamped on a piece of candy.


Now what is in a chocolate bar that is NOT for girls you ask? I was expecting something strong. Bold. Like maybe chock full of nuts you had to shell with your teeth or something. Instead, it was just plain old milk chocolate. Mediocre milk chocolate at that.

So guys . . . you can keep your Yorkies. I'll consume my empty calories with something a little more . . .lila.

Image courtesy of Vintage Holiday Images.

---->STOP THE PRESSES! I missed an entry. I tell ya, things are crazy around here. But please don't take it out on My Domestic Church that I can triple check a carnival and still miss her entry on Standardized college tests and her homeschooled kid.<----

Way back when, it seems like ages ago now, Henry Cate asked if I'd be willing to host the carnival this week. "Sure!" I said, perhaps too enthusiastically. I love hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling. It gives me a chance to connect with other homeschoolers, and find a few new blogs in the process. Nothing much is ever going on around here around the holidays. It's all quiet and peaceful, like Let a Woman Learn's Celebration of Winter. So stop by Lesson Pathways for some free Christmas Printables, I thought, or make some activity kits with Minds Bloom. Maybe even make a Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with Peanuts are Evil. You know, something to keep them occupied while I was occupied. Maybe if I was feeling particularly schoolerish, I could set them down with a Christmas Break book list like Seaside Tales.

But that was then. Before accepting an offer on our house which sent us in a flurry to get our other house ready to move into. Hey, maybe that could be #16 of 15 great uses for a digital camera from The Creative Homeschool: document progress on impossibly huge projects that never seem to get anywhere. Kinda like parenting. Each day seems like the next, but I look at those photos and realize how much they have grown. The Stone Age Techie says a bit about that with her camera. At any rate, the digital camera is definitely in the Tuesday Toolbox, and Homeschooling Hearts and Minds shares hers, as well.

It was also before the other party's financing fell through, killing the whole deal and throwing our house back on the market. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the phone call on Friday

We'd like to show your house tomorrow.

I painted while S.A.G.A. shared her American Idol Experience (part II andpart III). I fought with the plumbing while Baby Steps went to see The Nutcracker. I washed windows while Four Squares had Library School. Some online math games and lessons as shared by TutorFi would have been welcome by that point, but we do not yet have internet access out there.

And the phone call Saturday.

We'd like to show your house tomorrow.

Causing Teachable Moments' journey to homeschooling to go totally underappreciated and Rational Jenn's A Day in the Life post took a backseat to my own hectic schedule. And I totally missed Homeschoolers on TV. Good thing Why Homeschool was there to discuss it. Education may not be a race, as Life Nurturing Education points out, but cleaning the house sure is.

And Monday.

We'd like to show your house tomorrow.

I could so use some efficient teaching ideas for homeschooling mothers by The Legacy of Home. Or even just the reminder that Life is tasty in small bites, as PrincipledMom shares. These are definitely the times I think homeschooling would be easier if it weren't for the kids. No Fighting, No Biting also shares struggles which may be bringing their homeschool journey to a close. Sometimes it is hard to see past the insanity of the moment, and sometimes you do need to step away from it all.

So I told the realtor all about the rest of my life.

See, there is this thing called the Carnival of Homeschooling which is like this weekly magazine published online and it is my turn to host it. A great deal of time goes into posts like Reading Aloud: The Words Endure by CircleReader or Thoughts on Joy Hakim In Depth Show by The Thinking Mother or Materialism: What's with wanting so much stuff, anyway? by Laura Grace Weldon. Thus far I have gotten about nothing done on it. I've read zero of thirty to forty entries. Categorized zero of them. Gotten back with zero of the authors. Come up with zero ideas for a theme to tie them all together.

Yeah, right. As if I'd tell a realtor that. I didn't even wince as I said "Sure, no problem!" Even though it was a bit of a problem, but not really so much for the realtor. Or for me, really. After all, who in their right mind complains about a house showing? It was just a problem for this poor carnival.

I am so ready to just go away somewhere. About.com makes the Monterey Bay Aquarium sound like a nice field trip. A good nature study could be nice, as shared by The Mommy Earth. Bug got excited about the mouse tracks I showed her in the snow on the one walk we took last week. So excited I remembered why we homeschool for a few frozen minutes before returning to my paintbrushes. It's all about that Pursuit of Happiness Parent at the Helm wrote about. And so it begins, as Quiverfull Family points out. Another toddler joining the ranks of the homeschooled.

And here I am, getting ready to shove ALL of the unfinished laundry in the washing machine. (Please nobody start the washer without sorting it first!) There are a few pots that may find their way into the oven. A basket of unfolded laundry is sitting next to me, destined for the trunk of the car. These are my "dirty little secrets" of preparing for a house showing, though I'd never call it housecleaning.

The public's imagination seems to think homeschooling is an excellent place to hide abuse from the public's eye. Every now and again, a horrific tale of abuse is turned up in which the family claimed to be homeschooling in order to hide from authorities. Such was the case of Calista Springer's tragic life and death. Corn and Oil points out how homeschooling is not to be blamed with Lax is such a dangerous word, and Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards turns the focus on Child Protective Services with Calista was a victim of lazy or inept Child Protective Services.

There is no shortage of stereotypes against homeschoolers, as Pamela Jorrick points out. I've always wondered if that says more about the homeschoolers or those with the stereotypes. But even homeschoolers don't always like each other, as Successful Homeschooling shares in her post, Judgmental secular homeschoolers.

But I haven't had any time to really think about any of that. I didn't even have time to submit a post to my own carnival.

So Sprittibee shares her less than ideal holiday season and I think, "Oh yeah! Christmas is on Friday!" How can I forget a thing like that? Whether or not it was ideal . . . well, I'll answer that after I've gotten some sleep. And some coffee.

Thank you for visiting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling and my hectic week leading up to it. Next week, Renae of Life Nurturing Education will be hosting. Her life is every bit as hectic right now, what with moving to Idaho, and all, but she does a much better job of not showing herself unraveling on her blog. If you would like to submit a post, you may do so via the submission form at Blog Carnival. This carnival is organized by Why Homeschool where you can also find the archived carnivals.

I never had any idea painting was so strenuous. I've painted before, but never like this. I have aches in places I didn't even know I had muscles to ache. My hand rebels when I pick up a paintbrush.


And now it is time for the second coat and the trim.

And that, my dear readers, is all I can think to write about. Except all the other things that need done in the house, but I did that at my other blog. Just think of all the things I'll have to write about when the work is done and I get to sleep for a week.